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A Statement about 

the Destruction of Louvain and 

Neighborhood 



By 
LEON VAN DER ESSEN 

Professor oi History in the 
University of Louvain 



Chicago 

Privately Printed 

1915 



^" 



or 



A STATEMENT ABOUT THE DESTRUCTION OF LOUVAIN 
AND NEIGHBORHOOD 

There have been many stories about the "German atrocities" 
in Belgium, and recently certain articles have appeared in the 
Chicago press which are of such a character that they seem to demand 
particular attention. Those articles come from correspondents of 
American papers in Germany or accompanying the German army 
in France and Belgium. They generally represent the treatment 
given by the German army to the civil population in Belgium as 
very kind and conclude that everywhere stories about German 
atrocities "vanish on inquiry." 

I have no desire to question the sincerity of those correspondents, 
but in many respects I know they are mistaken. They were always 
far away from the places where "atrocities" were committed. One 
of them was, between August 12 and August 18, in the neighborhood 
of Landen and of Namur, when atrocities were committed in the 
eastern part of Belgium; he was staying in Brussels on August 20 
and the three following days, watching for the passing of the German 
troops through the city, when Aerschot and several villages between 
Louvain and Malines were sacked and destroyed; he was staying 
in the Belgian town of Binche when Louvain was burned; and he 
accompanied the German troops in France when the Belgian towns 
of Dinant, Andenne, and Tamines were destroyed and their inhabit- 
ants killed. In that way, one may assert that he has not seen 
atrocities, but it seems absolutely inconsequent to say that there 
were not atrocities at all. 

As one of those newspaper correspondents has reported the 
German accusations against the citizens of Louvain, and has made 
statements about that city which are entirely false, I think the time 
has come to give here my own account and to publish the truth 
concerning the occurrences which took place not only at Louvain 
but also in the villages and small towns of the neighborhood. 

I myself am not an eyewitness of all the facts I shall report 
here, but for each case I give my evidence in such a way that every- 
one will be able to judge of the value of the statement. I shall not 



give the names of my informants in every case, for some of them 
have their homes still left standing in Belgium or their parents and 
family and relatives still living in that country. The publication of 
those informants' names would bring upon the heads of their relatives 
very disagreeable consequences — remember the arrest of Cardinal 
Mercier — and for themselves disaster. But the names I have, and 
I am the repository of their statements, giving my word of honor 
that those reports are authentic. 

The Sack of Aerschot 

On the first of October, 1914, the communal secretary of Aerschot, 
who escaped the massacre and was a refugee on the Belgian coast 
at Lombaertzyde, gave the following written statement. I have 
that statement in my possession. I know the secretary of Aerschot 
personally and can vouch for the reliability of his report. 

The German army arrived before Aerschot on the 19th of August, at 
six o'clock in the morning. The town was bombarded and surrendered at 
eight o'clock. The Belgian troops, under command of Officer Gilson, fell 
back on Louvain. At nine o'clock the Germans entered Aerschot. Inune- 
diately, six civihans, M. Bruyninkx and his two sons, M. Michiels, M. 
Iseborghs, M. Chapeauville, were killed while they were crossing the streets. 
They had not fired a single shot on the entering troops. 

In the afternoon, the church was bombarded for two hours, the soldiers 
firing at the same time on the houses. 

It is a fact that the German general, who was standing at that 
time on the balcony of the burgomaster's house, was killed. The 
Germans say that he was killed by the son of Burgomaster Tiele- 
mans, a boy of sixteen years. The widow of the burgomaster 
energetically denies that fact in a letter, wherein she says: 

About four o'clock in the afternoon my husband was distributing some 
cigars to the [German] soldiers, standing outside our door. I was with 
him. Seeing that the general and his aides-de-camp were watching us from 
the balcony, I advised him to come in. At this moment, looking toward the 
Grand Place, where more than 2,000 soldiers were encamped, I saw dis- 
tinctly two puffs of smoke. Firing followed. The Germans were firing 
toward the houses and breaking into them. My husband, my children, 
the servants, and myself had just time to rush to the stairs leading to the 
cellars. The Germans were even firing in the halls of the houses. After 
a few minutes of great anxiety one of the general's aides-de-camp came 
down, saying: "The general is dead; where is the burgomaster?" My 

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OCCyMCMT r.lVISION 

fiiH I (lift 



husband said to me: "This will be serious for me." As he was stepping 
forward, I said to the aide-de-camp: "You may see, sir, that my husband 
did not fire." "Never mind," he answered, "he is responsible." My 
husband was taken away 

That is the statement of Mme Tielemans. The Germans 
maintain that the general was shot by the son of the burgomaster. 
I cannot deny or affirm either story : I was not at Aerschot. 

The communal secretary, however, continues his statements, 
in the following manner, and his testimony can scarcely be utterly 
disregarded : 

[After the death of the general] all the inhabitants of Aerschot were 
taken prisoners and led, their hands bound behind their backs, outside the 
town. The burgomaster, his brother, and his son, and a great number of 
inhabitants were shot. 

Here is a letter of M. S^verin Van Maesendonck, one of the 
inhabitants who was among the men who would have been shot 
but who escaped: 

A few steps from me, hidden under straw, with only their heads free, were 
lying, with their hands bound behind their backs, our burgomaster, his son, 

and his brother I saw one of the soldiers advancing toward the 

burgomaster and kicking the burgomaster's hat over his eyes, the other 
soldiers laughing at the joke. From the Stockman's farm, where the officers 
passed the night, some "leutnants" came. Emile Tielemans, the burgo- 
master, spoke to one of those officers, saying, "Well, Leutnant Wolff, I 
think there is a mistake. All those men could be shot as well as us without 
a word in their defense. You have dined this afternoon at my table, you 
were staying with me all the time, talking with me at the very moment when 
your soldiers began to shout: 'They have fired.' Well, you and you alone 
can be witness to my innocence." Leutnant Wolff repUed: "I know it. 
Monsieur Tielemans, and at the opportune moment, I shall testify in your 
favor." The officers went back to the farm and discussed our case. After 
a few minutes, they returned, without Leutnant Wolff, who had, of course, 
been unsuccessful in his intervention, and was unwilling to be present at 
the brutal execution of those men. 

The burgomaster, his brother, and his son were then shot. 

The other men [says the statement of the communal secretary] were 
then placed in ranks and numbered 1, 2, 3. Every number 3 was taken 
out and shot; for instance Jacques Vys and his three sons, Tuerlinckx, 
printer, the two brothers Van den Plas, Vanderheyde, communal teacher, 
Jean Berghe, pohceman. Fire was set to all the houses of the town place, 
The well-to-do ladies of the town were put in the middle of the market 
place, with their hands up, and ordered to stay in that position from ten 



o'clock in the morning until four o'clock in the afternoon. Among them 
was the widow of the burgomaster. A price of 10,000 marks had been put 
on her head, but no one betrayed the fact that she was there 

After a few days of terror, during which the remainder of the men, 
the women, and the children were shut up in the church, without food, the 
order was given to leave the town. Hundreds of fugitives were chased in 
the direction of Lou vain, followed by German soldiers. Among them was 
a lame and deaf woman, Mme Haye, pushed in a cart. Her niece, Nelly, 
aged twenty-eight, was killed because she tried to help her aunt 

When the fugitives, driven by the Germans, arrived at the Place de la 
Station at Lou vain, the soldiers fired a volley at them. Most of the unfor- 
tunate people fled. A young woman, aged twenty-five, Mme Bruyninckx- 
Marien, was killed in the arms of her mother 

Meanwhile other German soldiers continued to loot the houses of 
Aerschot. There were 1,500 inhabitants. More than 200 were killed, 
the rest deported. Aerschot is now destroyed and abandoned by its inhabit- 
ants. 

That is the story of the little town of Aerschot, near Louvain, 



The Sack of Wespelaer 

Regarding the sack of Wespelaer, my informant is the public- 
school teacher of that wealthy village. His statement was after- 
ward entirely confirmed by a Belgian nobleman, who, too, himself 

saw the facts, Viscount A ; I shall not give his name in full 

as his relatives are still in Belgium. 

On the evening of the same day, August 19, after the taking of Aerschot, 
some German lancers entered the village of Wespelaer, near Louvain, a 
place of 1,500 inhabitants. The Belgian army, in its retreat on Mahnes 
and Antwerp, had left a small rearguard in order to protect the retreat. 
Those soldiers fired at the German lancers, kiUing five of them, near the east 
corner of the railway station. 

The next day, August 20, German troops advanced on Wespelaer, in 
order to avenge the dead lancers killed by the Belgian rearguard. 

Immediately the Germans set fire to the fruit-canning factory (300 rail- 
way cars of 10,000 kilograms each). All the houses of the village were 
searched and those inhabitants who tried to flee shot in cold blood. Among 
them were: Emile Pennickx, aged thirty; L^on Gordts, twenty-seven; 
Andries Frangois, twenty-eight; Van de venne, Alphonse, and his daughter 
Mary, aged nineteen; Mme Dierickx, aged seventy, and her daughter, aged 
thirty; Mertens, Joseph, and his daughter, aged twenty-two. 

Sixty houses were burnt, as was too the beautiful chateau, the country 
house of a nobleman, the milk factory, the dynamo store of De Coster & Co. 



The inhabitants were then assembled in the church and taken as prisoners 
and driven by the German soldiers in the direction of Thildonck. The 
burgomaster, M. De Wolf, and the parish priest, Fr. Van Segvelt, marched 
at the head of the column of prisoners. The priest was compelled to bear 
a German flag and was kicked by a soldier, who shouted at him: "Nicht 
zuviel Potz machen und besser marchieren, schwarzer Hund." After a 
short time the prisoners were joined by other groups of men coming from 
the villages of Herent, Winxele, Bueken, which had also been devastated. 

On the way, Fr. De Clercq, priest of Bueken, who was ill, was attached 
to a gun; he asked to be killed, as he was unable to bear his torture any 
longer. At last, near Malines, the prisoners were released. 

Meanwhile, the village of Wespelaer was also looted: absolutely every- 
thing was taken away or destroyed. 

The fate of Wespelaer was also the fate of nearly all the numer- 
ous villages lying along a road 20 miles in length between Louvain 
and Malines. As I think it is time to speak now of the fate of 
Louvain itself, I will deal no longer with the tortures suffered by the 
peasants of the neighborhood of Louvain. 



The Destruction of Louvain 
l louvain before the entering of the germans 

I personally was not at Louvain when the town was burned. 
I left it six days before its destruction. But I was there all the time 
from the outbreak of the war (August 3) until the entering of the 
German troops, and I myself saw some things which may perhaps 
prove interesting. 

I had served as civic guard since July 3L The civic guard 
are not "francs tireurs" (snipers), of course, but troops, wearing 
a distinctive military uniform, armed with the Mauser rifle, com- 
manded by regular officers appointed by the King. In America 
one would call them "the militia." 

For three weeks I acted as civic guard in the neighborhood of 
Louvain, for the protection of railway bridges and lines of com- 
munication of the Belgian army, and to defend the villages of the 
neighborhood against the possible attacks of German lancers, who 
were overrunning our country. 

On the night of August 18 we witnessed, from a hill, the burn- 
ing of Tirlemont, where in the afternoon and the evening a battle 

5 



had taken place. Toward eleven o'clock at night, I saw the Belgian 
troops retreating in excellent order before overwhelming numbers. 
One of my students, Ch. Van Tieghem, whom I recognized among 
the passing soldiers, told me that the sudden concentration of 
artillery fire on the Belgian trenches, quickly discovered by the 
German aeroplanes, had compelled his battalion to retire in a hurry, 
after it had fought gallantly for more than five hours. Soon we 
saw the villages on the road from Tirlemont to Louvain set on fire 
one after the other and could watch the advance of the enemy. 
After a short time we fell back on Louvain. We saw then the 
Belgian army going around the town, leaving Louvain on its left, 
and retiring quickly in the direction of Malines. Louvain, as an 
open town, was not to be defended. 

So we, men of the civic guard, were all disarmed on the morning 
of August 19 at a quarter to six o'clock. Each of us threw his rifle, 
his bayonet, and his 120 bullets into trunks, awaiting this purpose, 
and all those arms were sent by train to the fortress of Antwerp, 
upon which the Belgian army was falling back. 

We remained a while, unarmed, in the station, until eight o'clock. 
We were full of despair, but regained hope when a staff officer 
hurried by with the statement that the French troops were pushing 
forward, by "marches forcees," on Louvain, in order to help our 
army. Later we heard, however, that the French had come too 
late and were wheeling rapidly back in the direction of Namur. 
We assisted, full of despair, at the departure of the Belgian general 
headquarters, of the scouts, who took with them one single German 
soldier as prisoner of war — the others had been previously sent to 
Bruges — a poor-looking fellow, and, at eight o'clock in the morning, 
after three hours of nervous excitement, we were finally disbanded. 
At that time not one Belgian soldier was in Louvain. Only a gallant 
rearguard action was fought at Lovenjoul, near Louvain. The 
Belgian lancers there charged the advancing enemy: only seven of 
those heroic lancers came back. 

I went to my home, took my wife and my two little babies — ■ 
one of them only fifteen days old, being born the very day of the 
declaration of war on Belgium — to the train, and we left Louvain. 
Two or three miles outside the town, in the direction of Lovenjoul, 
the roar of the guns thundered. That was the Belgian artillery, 
protecting the retreat of our troups. 

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That is what I witnessed at Louvain. I saw, too, on the first 
day of the war, all the arms of the inhabitants requisitioned by the 
burgomaster, according to instructions issued by the Belgian govern- 
ment, and I saw, too, posted on the walls, those proclamations, 
"whose language," according to one of the American correspondents 
of a Chicago paper, seemed "often passionate in its solicitude": 

AUX CiVILS 

Le ministre de I'int^rieur recommande aux civils, si I'ennemi se montre 
dans leur region: 

De ne pas combattre; 

De ne prof^rer ni injures ni menaces; 

De se tenir a I'interieur et de fermer les fenetres afin qu'on ne puisse dire 
qu'il y a eu provocation; 

Si les soldats occupent, pour se defendre, une maison ou un hameau 
isole, de I'evacuer, afin qu'on ne puisse dire que les civils ont tire; 

L'acte de violence commis par un seul civil serait un veritable crime, 
que la loi punit d'arrestation et condamne, car il pourrait servir de pr^texte 
a une repression sanglante, au pillage et au massacre de la population inno- 
cente, des femmes et des enfants. 

That warning was given both to the Flemish and to the Walloon 
population and printed, every day, in every Belgian newspaper. 

2. THE GERMAN OCCUPATION AT LOUVAIN FROM AUGUST 19 TO 

AUGUST 25 

The statements I make below are not based on my own expe- 
rience. But there are many of my colleagues, professors of the 
University of Louvain (nearly 25), in England, many among them 
victims of brutalities and several of whom escaped a terrible death. 
We have been together for three months in England. The reli- 
ability and honesty of these of my colleagues is beyond question. 
I have in my possession written statements they have made, state- 
ments which anyone may read who is interested. Others told me 
their story, without writing it. I have the fullest confidence in 
their statements, as I know that no one of them would assert facts 
which he had not seen himself. 

Here is a statement of Professor Canon Leon Noel, professor of 
philosophy, who was a victim of the soldiers' brutality. His state- 
ment is in my possession. 

When the Germans approached Louvain, I decided to stay. I had 
confidence in the law of nations. I had confidence too, in the German 

7 



discipline. I had been in Germany and — why not acknowledge it ? — had 
brought from there a sincere, sympathetic feeling toward the German 
people and a deep admiration for German organization. I thought it 
impossible that the occupation of Louvain by the German army could be 
accompanied by trouble, and I refused to believe the tales of atrocities 
committed at Mouland, Argenteau, Vis^, or Aerschot. 

The Germans entered Louvain on the 19th of August. The Belgian 
troops which covered us fell back owing to the overwhelming numbers of 
the enemy. At the very moment the battle neared the town, the artillery 
of the Belgians ceased firing, in order to avoid fighting within the town. 
Some hours later, the German army marched through our streets, with fifes 
and drums, singing "Die Wacht am Rhein." No incident, no provocation. 
Many inhabitants had left the town. Those who remained had only one 
idea: to prevent any act of hostility which could bring upon them punish- 
ment. The burgomaster of Louvain had, by way of proclamations, asked 
the population to stay quiet, insisting on the fact that the army alone had 
the right to fight the enemy. According to the instructions of the Belgian 
government, he had disbanded the civic guard and disarmed the members of 
that body. The arms of the inhabitants had been twice requisitioned since 
the first day of the war; the German commander requisitioned them a third 
time. I saw one of my friends hastily carrying [to the town hall] an old 
hunting rifle, and another so scrupulous as to deliver native arms brought 
back from the Congo. 

On the evening of the 19th, some regiments were quartered for the night 
in private houses. I want to state that, in my home, things happened quite 
well and I had, of course, with one of my German guests, a very interesting 
talk about the war: he expected to finish the war quickly in France in 
order to attack Russia after that. In other homes of Louvain, matters did 
not go so well. I saw on the following morning houses which had been 
entirely sacked. One of them belonged to a University professor. The 
owner of another had spent the night in the hospital, taking care of the 
wounded soldiers. In those houses, not only had the cellar been looted, 
but the art works had been destroyed, and the furniture soiled in an un- 
speakable manner, the books and papers torn, the scientific apparatus badly 
damaged. In other houses, occupied only by women, the Germans con- 
ducted themselves in a very uncouth manner. 

For a whole week we saw the German army passing through the streets, 

and requisition followed upon requisition Enormous quantities of 

supplies were ordered every day. The commissariat of the German army 
had gathered such a number of cattle that it exceeded the needs of the 
army. But, as all the cattle had been slain at once, what remained could 
not be used for the food of the civilians and was left to rot. Looting 
and brutality went on apace. I saw myself at the hospital a young girl 
of the neighborhood. She had been taken away by the soldiers in the 
presence of her parents. She was first violated and then stabbed twice 
with bayonets. 

8 



The inhabitants suffered all those things calmly. The German officer 
in command had also taken hostages: the burgomaster, the aldermen, the 
rector of the University, the dean of St. Peter. 

3. THE INHABITANTS OF LOUVAIN THANKED BY MAJOR 
VON MANTEUFFEL 

On the morning of the 25th of August, the German commander. Major 
von Manteuffel, by means of affiches, congratulated the inhabitants of the 
town for their irreproachable attitude and announced that the hostages 
should be released. We did not foresee what would happen some hours 
after. 

4. THE BEGINNING OF THE DESTRUCTION AS IT APPEARED TO 
AN EYEWITNESS 

During the day of August 25 [continues the statement of Professor Noel] 
we heard the roar of the guns in the direction of Malines. Toward evening 
the roar came nearer and nearer. Troops were sent in a hurry out of the 
town, in the direction of the battle. At eight o'clock in the evening, just as 
I was finishing my dinner, I heard in the street fierce firing. Soon a con- 
tinuous crackling indicated the firing of a machine-gun. The bullets hit 
the walls of my house. We fled into a room near the garden. Soon we saw 
the flames breaking out everywhere. The firing stopped, then began again, 
at intervals, first nearer, then farther away. 

From a room of the upper floor, I saw German soldiers passing in the 
street. One of them, quite calmly, fired a shot in the air with his rifle. 
I noted the particular sound of those German shots: at different times I 
recognized them when, during the next two days, as it was related, the 
citizens of Louvain were supposed to be fighting in the streets against the 
Germans. 

But, at that moment, I did not understand anything about what was 
happening. I state only that the rooms I went through were pierced by a 

hail of bullets. Those, surely, had not been fired in the air I saw, 

too, through the windows, that the burning was coming nearer and nearer. 
Hastily I put together some needed articles and bade my relatives flee .... 
just in time, for the machine-guns came back and the bullets fell again on 
my house. Then the aggressors left again. We waited all night, till day- 
break. Then the firing began again. Daylight showed the town under 
a veil of black smoke and in a dead silence. At length doors opened; neigh- 
bors talked together. Some houses had put up the white flag. Some 
citizens were coming out, a white handkerchief in their hand. They met 
German patrols who stopped them, searched them, ordered them to hold 
their hands up every five steps. Those citizens came back and told what 
happened. The Germans said the inhabitants had fired at their troops. 
Where? How? No precise fact could be stated in reply. 

In such a way began the destruction of Louvain, on August 25, 
about eight o'clock in the evening. 

9 



5. THE REASON FOR THE DESTRUCTION 

We see, in Professor Noel's statement, that the Germans say 
the inhabitants of Louvain fired at their troops. Afterward, the 
official explanation given by Germany repeated those charges and 
the article recently published in a Chicago paper echoed those 
accusations. 

Professor Noel states that he heard the first shots being fired 
about eight o'clock in the evening. All my other colleagues at 
Louvain are agreed concerning that statement. They, too, heard 
the first shots fired about eight o'clock, some of them in other parts 
of the city, at an earlier hour, about 7:35 or 7:45 p.m. 

Well, everyone who was at Louvain during the German occu- 
pation knows that, after seven o'clock in the evening, all the inhabit- 
ants had to stay inside their homes and that if anyone was found on 
the streets after that time, he was arrested. Then, after seven 
o'clock, all the windows had to be closed, and, in some streets, a 
light was to be kept in the windows all night. 

As the first shots were fired about 7:35 p.m., at a time when, 
owing to the very strict German rule, every citizen had to stay 
inside his house, one can hardly believe that civilians began attack- 
ing the Germans in the street. 

But, did the civilians perhaps fire from their windows? That, 
too, has been asserted. None of my colleagues were in the streets 
of Louvain that evening; they can neither deny nor affirm the fact 
that civilians were firing from their windows. 

But Professor B , who speaks German quite well, on the 

early morning of the 26th of August, left his house and walked along 
the Mont du College, to the Rue de Namur. There he saw the 
Library of the University burning fiercely, and at six o'clock in the 
morning the roof of the Library collapsed. The next day, on the 
morning of the 27th, he was able to speak to a German sentry, on 
the Vieux Marche, in front of the destroyed Library. He asked 
him in German what had really happened on the evening of the 
25th. The German soldier replied: Man hat uns alarmirt gegen 
7 oder 7| Uhr. Unsere Truppe sind abgezogen, und da wir nur 
wenige ueberblieben, so haben die Civielen aiif uns geschossen. 
("An alarm was given about 7:00 or 7:30 o'clock. Our troops 
had left the town and, as only a few of us remained, the civilians 
fired on us.") 

10 



I 



Indeed, on the 25th, as we read in the statement of Professor 
Noel, in the afternoon troops were sent in a hurry out of the 
town, as there was a battle not far from Louvain, in the direction 
of Mahnes. Only a few soldiers remained as a garrison in Louvain, 
after those troops had left. According to the German soldier to 

whom Professor B spoke, those remaining were suddenly 

attacked by the inhabitants. The attack about which the German 

soldier talked with Professor B took place, the German said, 

on the Vieux Marche. Well, on the Vieux March^ there are only 
stores, drug-stores, groceries, bakeries, fruit shops, etc. When, 
between August 19 and August 25, some German troops were quar- 
tered in the middle of the Vieux March^ (a market), the crowd was 

busily engaged in trade there. On those days Professor B saw 

women and children issuing out of the stores and shops on each side 
of the market, selling cigars, cakes, bread, beer,, fruits, etc., to the 

soldiers. A woman said to Professor B : "I'm glad to get this 

opportunity; as we shall not have our 'Kermesse' [local feast] this 
year, the presence of those soldiers will bring us a lot of money." 

I can hardly imagine that under these conditions the people dwel- 
ling on the Vieux March6 really did fire from their windows at the 
German soldiers in the market. 

Pursuing his questions further, Professor B asked the 

German soldier: " Where did they fire from ? " The German showed 
the blackened walls of the University Library! That building had 
been unoccupied since the outbreak of the war; no officer was left 
there, and the mediaeval, heavy doors were locked and barred. 
I saw the building before I left Louvain, and it was well closed as it 
is every year in vacation time. 

In view of all this, can anyone declare that the inhabitants fired 
from the windows of the Library, a building which most of them, 
and most assuredly the grocers and fruit merchants of the Vieux 
March6, had never entered in their lives ? 

The German soldier to whom Professor B spoke said that 

the Germans "had been alarmed" at 7:00 or 7:30 p.m.; that troops 
were sent to the battle that was then raging between Malines and 
Louvain, and that only a few soldiers were left. As the time when 
the first shots were heard is given by some of my colleagues as being 
7:35 P.M., one might conclude that, at the time indicated by 
the German sentry, the remaining troops really were attacked. But 

11 



Professor B and others assert positively that troops were sent 

out to the battle before 6 : 00 p.m., and not at 7 : 00 or 7 : 30 p.m. Why 
should the inhabitants not have attacked between 6:00 p.m. and 
8:00 P.M., before the other troops returned to the town? 

Professor B also found the opportunity to talk with another 

German sentry, on one of the boulevards of Louvain, on the morning 
of Thursday, August 28. On that boulevard he saw the house of one 
of his relatives nearly destroyed by shrapnel. He asked the 
German soldier why the Germans had destroyed that house. Das ist 
nicht absichtlich gemacht, da wohnten gute Leute (''That was not done 
intentionally; good people lived there"), replied the soldier; aher 
daher hat man auf uns geschossen ("but from that house they fired 
at us"), and he pointed to a house on the corner of the boulevard. 
Here, for the second time, we have a precise charge. Well, the house 
indicated by the German sentry was occupied by a man and a woman 
aged nearly seventy years. I know them and can assert that they 
are absolutely unable to carry a gun and to fire from their windows. 

On the same morning of the 28th, Professor B talked 

further with a third German soldier, on another boulevard. He 
questioned again, in German: "What happened on the 25th?" 
and again the reply came: Man hat auf uns geschossen, followed, 
however, by this remark: Unschuldigen zahlen mit den Schuldigen 
("Innocent people pay as well as the guilty"). To the inquiry of 

Professor B as to where the inhabitants fired from, the sentry 

pointed at the house of one of Professor B 's relatives. Pro- 
fessor B replied: Das ist kaum moglich ("that is scarcely 

possible"), for he knew that the relative in question had left Louvain 
before the entry of the Germans. The German replied: Vielleicht 
daneben ("Perhaps they fired from the next house"). The next 
house, too, had been vacated by its occupants before the occupation 
of the town. 

The authenticity of those statements is vouched for by Professor 
Jacques Thoreau, professor of mineralogy. Those are the only 
statements I have which give precise charges from the German side, 
made by soldiers who had not learned a lesson prepared by their 
officers, but who were speaking in a quite natural and unprepared 
manner. I have no statements covering other points of the town, 
and so I can neither affirm nor deny that in other places no one 
had fired. But the three examples given above seem to me to throw 

12 



a very singular light on the value of precise accusations against the 
citizens of Louvain. 

I have, however, on the other side, very important statements, 
which are of such a character that they ought to be carefully exam- 
ined. 

One of my colleagues, Professor Leon Verhelst, states the follow- 
ing extraordinary fact. On the evening of August 25, when the 
burning began, he was at home; he had just finished supper when, at 
about 8: 15 p.m., two German soldiers rang his doorbell. He opened 
the door himself. Without saying a word, the two soldiers rushed up 
to the second floor and fired several shots into the air through the 
window. The professor was so astonished that he left the door 
open. Some other German soldiers rushed at him, pretending that 
he had shot at them through the window. They fired three times 
at him, fortunately without result. He ran and locked himself in 
his cellar, out of which he managed to escape when his house, which 
had been set on fire, threatened to fall in ruins above his head. 

An incident of like character— with this difference, that here the 
shots were fired in front of the house— was observed by another of 
our professors, on the next morning, at 7:35 o'clock. It should be 
borne in mind that Professor Noel, in his statement given above, 
asserts that he saw a German soldier, passing with others in front 
of his house, coolly firing a shot in the air. 

Here then are three separate statements, proving that the 
German soldiers themselves fired shots in the air, in the streets of 
Louvain, at a time when, as it was said, they were attacked by the 
civilians in the streets. 

What is then the reason for the destruction of Louvain ? Nobody 
knows; but here is an explanation, given by all my colleagues 
unanimously— an explanation that may be read in connection with 
the facts I have stated above. On the afternoon of the 25th of 
August, the inhabitants of Louvain heard the thunder of the guns in 
the direction of Malines (nearly 20 miles from Louvain). The 
Belgian army, making a sortie out of the first ring of the Antwerp 
fortifications, attacked the Germans at Malines, hurling them back 
in the direction of Brussels and in the direction of Louvain. The 
German commander at Louvain sent support from the town. The 
battle raged until the evening, and the troops left in Louvain, as 
well as the inhabitants, could hear the sound of the guns coming 

13 



nearer and nearer. The sound of the Belgian guns, quite different 
from those of the German, was easy to be recognized. In the evening, 
toward 7:30 o'clock, the German troops were hurled back by the 
Belgians nearly to the gates of Louvain. They entered the town 
completely routed and disbanded. Enraged, they fired on the 
houses. At those shots, the soldiers left in the town rushed by, 
thinking that the enemy had entered the town.^ Between the two 
bodies of German troops a struggle took place in the darkness. 
They fired each on the other. After a few minutes, they recognized 
their mistake, but some sixty Germans had fallen on both sides. 
In order to cover their blunder, the soldiers shouted that the civihans 
had fired on them, and the destruction of the town began. 

That is the explanation opposed to all German official denials. 

6. THE EVENTS OF THE NIGHT OF AUGUST 25 

Immediately the German troops rushed in all directions and 
began to set fire to the houses. 

In the Rue de la Station [says the statement of Professor Noel partly 
reproduced above], the Boulevard de Tirlemont, the Chauss^e de Tirlemont, 
and elsewhere also, many houses were burned. The inhabitants who tried 
to flee were shot down by rifle fire in the streets, like rabbits. I heard later 
that many dead bodies had been found in the cellars of the destroyed houses. 

Mme Nicaud, a well-to-do woman of Louvain, wife of a com- 
mandant of the 5th Belgian artillery, states that in the Rue de la 
Station, in nearly every house, the inhabitants were called to their 
doors and there at once shot with revolvers. She saw at least fifty 
men shot. One of my friends, M. Van Ertryck, died in that manner. 
A wealthy citizen, M. David, in whose house German officers had 
taken dinner, was taken out and shot at his own door, whereupon 
his magnificent home was immediately looted. M. David was 
aged eighty-four. In the other main streets. Rue Leopold, Rue 
de Diest, Grand Place, Rue de Namur, etc., similar events took 
place. Every man who had a knife on his person larger than a small 
penknife, or who was slow in putting up his hands, or failed to under- 
stand an order, was shot out of hand. 

'A proof of the fact that that really was the idea of the Germans left in Louvain is 
found in the following circumstances. At the first shots fired, an ofiQcer and three soldiers 
rushed to the delicatessen store at the corner of one of the main streets and asked to be 
hidden in the cellar, "as the Belgians surprised Louvain." This was told to me by Mile 
D , the owner of the store. 

14 



1 



During the night and on the following morning (August 26) 
the burning continued. Soon the central building of the University 

and the Cathedral of St. Peter were burning. Professor B 

saw the roof of the Cathedral set on fire with hand grenades, and 
the splendid church was soon fiercely burning. Mme Nicaud states 
that numbers of the inhabitants, who had escaped to the station, 
were there arrested by the German soldiers, the men being separated 
from the women and the children. Many of the men were conducted 
to the corner of the Boulevard de Tirlemont and of the Rue Marie 
Therese and immediately shot. The women were gathered, six 
hundred of them together, states Mme Nicaud, in a waiting-room 
at the station. After that they were compelled to march and to 
counter-march. Among them were women of over seventy years 
of age and sick and invalid persons. One woman was delivered of 
a child on the road. 

7. THE EVENTS OF WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26 

What happened on the next morning is stated by Professor 
Noel, who continues his report thus : 

The Germans arrested groups of men and compelled them to walk in front 
of them, hands up, imtil the Belgian troops were encountered. Then, 
as the battle [at Malines] had ceased, those men were released. I met three 
University professors who were prisoners in one of those groups. All three 
had lived in Germany and had professed an unreserved admiration for 
deutsche Kultur and deutsche Wissenschaft. One of them was extremal j^ agi- 
tated. Before he was arrested, fire was set to his house, where his old father, 
a man of more than eighty years of age, had been ill for many months. He 
saw four German soldiers putting the old man on a mattress and throwing him 
into the garden, in the middle of the night. The old man, one of the most 
conspicuous artistic and literary personalities of Belgium, was found by me 
later dying on a hospital bed. I met, too, the young wife of one of my 
colleagues, who is a soldier in the army. Her baby was six days old; bullets 
were raining upon her bed. She, too, was carried to the hospital. 

It was here, at the hospital, that we were compelled to seek refuge with 
hundreds of other families, for the Germans were again burning the houses 
and killing the people in my street. With my mother and our servants, 
I left my house. Threatening soldiers came nearer and we were compelled 
to flee. A maid-servant who went back to my house to find some things 
she had forgotten was ill treated. The soldiers were asking for me; they 
said that I had fired upon the Germans. The proofs of it were their own 
bullets which they had fired through the windows and the walls of my house. 
I, myself, on our way to the hospital, was arrested by a patrol, but at the 

15 



corner of the street I escaped. We thus passed the night of the 26th of 
August at the hospital. We heard the firing starting again at different 
times and on all sides of the town we saw the raging flames. 



8. THE FATE OF A CIVIC GUARD 

While Professor Noel and other families took refuge in the 
hospital, other things happened to other inhabitants of the town. 

For the following statement I am indebted to an officer of our 
University, closely connected with our Library; he was himself 
a victim. He lived with me for three months in England and is still 
in that country. His name and reliability are well known to Dr. 
F. Jameson, director of the historical department of the Carnegie 
Institution at Washington, and to two of my former pupils, M. F. 
Zwierlein, professor at Rochester, New York, and M. P. Guilday, 
professor in the Catholic University of America at Washington. 

Here is the statement of that eyewitness, in his own words: 

On the morning of August 26 some German soldiers with drums, accom- 
panied by a disarmed policeman, went through the streets. The policeman 
announced to the population that all the men of the former civic guard were 
required to meet at the St. Martin's barracks, in order to do service in the 
town, especially, it was added, in order to quench the flames.^ As the 
severest punishment was threatened to those who would not come, I went 
to the barracks. In the Rue de Namur, I was looking at the destroyed 
Library, when at once the firing of the German machine-guns started again 
in the streets. I ran to the barracks in the Rue de Namur and asked a 
German officer to give me a written statement in order to excuse my late 
arrival at the St. Martin's barracks, where we were ordered to be at 2:00 p.m. 
When the firing had ceased, I left the barracks of the Rue de Namur and 
went, with a lot of comrades of the former civic guard, to the St. Martin's 
barracks. But, on our way, in the Grand Place, we were stopped by Ger- 
man soldiers. In the Grand Place I found a great number of former members 
of the civic guard and other inhabitants too, collected on the spot, in front of 
the town hall. What a terrible sight! The whole Grand Place was covered 
with iron pots, filled with incendiary materials, and the fine church of St. 
Peter was burning. The soldiers asked us if we did not admire that schones 
Schauspiel ("fine scene"). At once we were surrounded by a lot of drunken 
soldiers, who looked more like savages. They kicked us and pulled us in 

> That order was a comedy, according to Professor B . He saw a German 

soldier sprinkling water on a burning house of the Vieux Marche in front of the Library. 
When Professor B came in the Rue de Paris, at the rear of that house, he saw Ger- 
man soldiers setting fire to two adjoining houses with hand grenades. So, while the 
bystanders were induced to believe that some soldiers were trying to quench the flames 
on the Vieux Marche, in the next street other houses were deliberately set on fire. 

16 



all directions. They took off all the red cross badges on the men acting as 
"infirmiers." The officers were very busy protecting us against the excited 
soldiers, who threatened us with their bayonets and aimed their rifles at us. 
From most of us the soldiers took our money, watches, and valuables, and 
shouting at us all the time Schweinhunde, grosse Schioeine, etc. Then many 
heavily loaded carts arrived. The soldiers took off their "havre-sacs" and 
compelled us to bear them ourselves. For an half hour we were compelled 
to push the heavy carts through the Rue de Bruxelles. On the right and on 
the left were soldiers who, advancing, discharged their rifles all the time at 
the houses on each side of the street. Above our heads there was a con- 
tinuous crossing of bullets. Two of us were so frightened that they fell. 
They were killed. 

On the way, in the Rue de Bruxelles, all the people met by the soldiers, 
women and men, were made prisoners and compelled to accompany us. 
I shall never forget the cries of a crippled woman who was obliged to follow 
us for a time. Finally she fell on the sidewalk and was allowed to rest. 

After half an hour of pushing the carts, we came to an open field, outside 
the Porte de Bruxelles. Here several thousand German soldiers were 
encamped. As soon as they saw us, they began to shout: "No mercy! 
Kill them all!" We were then obhged to kneel down, two by two, and the 
soldiers told us we were going to be shot. Meanwhile a Jesuit father had 
blessed us and given us absolution, as we were all convinced that we had to 
die. After a quarter of an hour, we were allowed to stand up and were again 
compelled to push the carts over very rough country land. We were all 
suffering from the warm weather, but did not receive a drop of water. All 
the time the soldiers struck us with the butt-ends of their rifles. We next 
arrived at a second German camp. Here one of us was taken out, charged 
with having thrown a bomb in the Rue de Bruxelles. The man denied it 
energetically. He was, without trial, condemned to death. The Germans 
compelled him first to dig his own grave and then he was shot. 

After that we were ordered to proceed, four by four. The Jesuit father 
and the women were released. We thought the Germans would send us 
back to Louvain. But, on the contrary, we were compelled to walk in the 
direction of Malines, on the Chaussee de Malines. All the houses along that 
highroad, several miles long, as far as we could see, were fiercely burning 
We marched for more than an hour between that sea of flames, raging on 
each side of the road. After that we came to an open field near the village 
of Winxele. There we were compelled to lie down and we were bound by 
ropes. A heavy rain was then falling, and we were wet through all night. 
The field was transformed into a mud hole. There we were lying until five 
o'clock the next morning. It was then Thursday, the 27th of August. At 
7:30 A.M. we were again placed in ranks, and marched off, in the rain, sur- 
rounded by the soldiers, in the direction of the village of Campenhout. 
When we passed German troops on the way, those troops shouted at us and 
threatened us. At Campenhout, we were all— 150 of us— shut up in a stable 
with our clothes saturated with rain, while a sentry was placed at the door. 

17 



An officer came to tell us that among us there were people who had fired 
at the German soldiers and that, if we betrayed the guilty, we should all be 
released at once. We knew that none of us fired, and preferred to die 
rather than to charge innocent people. After two hours, the officer came 
back, with some fifty soldiers, each of them bearing digging tools. Terror 
fell on us we thought we should be compelled to dig our own graves and 
should all be shot afterward. Fortunately, there was no longer question of 
betraying the "guilty" among us. We were marched off to another field, 
and compelled to dig up all the potatoes. After that, the potatoes were 
prepared and each of us received 3 of them as our dinner. It was the first 
food we had had in twenty-four hours. After the "dinner," we were com- 
pelled to dig trenches for the German army until evening. At about 6:30 
P.M. we saw the German guns beginning the bombardment of Malines. 
The soldiers laughed at us, saying that they were going to send us some 
of those bombs. I was so frightened that I could scarcely move. 

Meanwhile, all the men of Campenhout and surrounding neighborhood 
had been arrested and joined us. At 8:00 p.m. we were all shut up in the 
church of Campenhout, together with the vicar and a seminarist of that 
parish. We were compelled to face in the direction of the altar and we 
were strictly forbidden to move. 

On the following morning, August 28, we were all searched in order to 
see whether we had any military medals and whether there were not Belgian 
soldiers among us. Without food we were then marched off in the direc- 
tion of Louvain, going four by four. It was a march of 15 miles. We 
were told that if one of us should try to escape, the others would be killed. 
At the head of our column marched as hostages, the vicar and the seminarist 
of Campenhout and two wealthy citizens of Louvain. If a shot was fired 
on the way, those hostages would be killed. It was exceedingly warm. 
The soldiers were drinking all the time, without giving us a drop of water. 
Passing through Bueken, the soldiers pointed at the dead and completely 
nude body of a woman, charred by fire, and lying in front of the ruins of her 
house. Everywhere on the way the soldiers showed us with particular 
pleasure the dead bodies of civilians, which had lain there unburied for 
three days. 

When we entered Louvain, we were joined by a crowd of people who had 
been gathered from all directions, men, women, children, aged and crippled 
people. We passed through the Place de la Station and the Rue de la Station, 
both practically entirely destroyed. On the corner of the Rue Minckelers, 
we saw on the sidewalk the dead body of a well-dressed man who had been 
shot. This body was half -burned. I have seen nearly twenty dead bodies 
of civilians, many of them lying in a position that indicated they were shot 
while trying to escape. Some of them, particularly a workman, had their 
hands bound behind their backs. 

After having crossed the Rue du Canal, we were all shut up in the 
"Manege" (practice riding school), where for eight days the Germans had 
lodged. The "Manege" was filled with rotting straw and the odor was 

18 



awful. There we were shut up for the night, some 2,000 men, women, and 
children together. As there was lack of room, we were unable to move, and 
there was no opportunity for eating, drinking, or sleeping. That night two 
poor little babies died and a woman went insane, screaming in a most shock- 
ing manner. To the children, however, the German soldiers distributed 
some " deUcatessen, " taken from the stores of the town. In the corner of the 
building were sitting some English soldiers, taken prisoners at the battle of 
Mons. They were well treated. 

The next morning, Saturday, August 29, the German officers announced 
a lot of "news" from the war: they told of the victories in France and 
Belgium, the [supposed] fall of Antwerp, the flight of King Albert, and 
finished by declaring that peace had been signed between Belgium and 
Germany and that we all would be allowed to return to our homes. 

Four by four, we walked out of the "Manage," surrounded by German 
soldiers. They took us in the direction of the Malines road. There we had 
to sit down for four hours amid the ruins of the burned houses and the dead 
bodies of the murdered inhabitants. 

Meanwhile, all the old men, women, and children had been released. 
Only the young men and the priests, some three hundred, had to remain: 
they were told they would be sent to Germany. At 5:00 p.m. we were 
again marched off. From time to time we were compelled to run, and those 
who were unable to do so were struck with rifles: the priests were stabbed 
with the points of the bayonets. 

Soon it became clear that we were not going to be sent to Germany, but 
to Malines. At ten o'clock in the evening we came to the bridge of Campen- 
hout. The Germans thought the Belgian troops must be in the neigh- 
borhood of Malines. They decided to get information, using us as a shield. 
We were driven in the direction where the Belgian outposts were supposed 
to be, followed by the Germans, to the village of Boort-Meerbeek. There 
an order was given to continue our march. The Belgians in front of us would 
certainly, in the darkness, take us for German troops coming from Louvain 
and fire at us. 

Finally liberated, we marched to MaUnes. Approaching the Belgian 
outposts in the night, we shouted: "Don't fire, we are Belgian civilians." 
Nevertheless, fearing a German trick, the Belgian sentries fired. Fortunately 
nobody was hit. We ran to the edges of the road and remained there until 
a priest, with great courage, walked alone to the fines of the Belgian outposts 
and explained the case. 

On Sunday, August 30, after four days of suffering, we reached the 
village of Waelhem at 3:30 o'clock in the morning, where we received aid 
from the Belgian soldiers. 

This was the statement of the officer of our University when 
I saw him, a few days after, as a refugee near Ghent. I scarcely 
recognized him: he looked like a bandit, unshaven, with tired face, 
tattered clothes, and his feet swollen and bleeding. He could 

19 



scarcely walk. He is a scientifically educated man, not at all 
inclined to exaggeration, and, as I said, his reliability is well known 
to those American scholars I named above. 

9. THE EVENTS OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 28 

According to the statement of Professor Noel, the events on 
Thursday, August 28, were as follows: 

On the morning of the 28th, new danger. The Germans announced that 
the city was to be razed to the ground by guns^ placed for the purpose out- 
side the town, at "Tivoli," near the railway bridge, and that the whole 
population would have to leave the town at once. After many orders and 
counter-orders, we had to go in the direction of Tirlemont, accompanied 
by soldiers who aimed their rifles at us all the time. When we reached the 
main road to Tirlemont, we saw it crowded with fugitives for miles and 
miles. Among them were sick and crippled people. Most of the ladies 
from the best families of Louvain were walking on the road without shoes 
or hats. Along the road, where once many villages had stood, all had been 
destroyed, except three houses. 

Meanwhile, at some distance from Louvain, we went through a German 
camp. I was still wearing my cassock of Catholic priest. Soldiers ran at 
me, insulted me, and with fierce brutality took me to a little pigpen, standing 
on the edge of the road. I found there in that dirty pen twenty priests of 
Louvain who had been arrested. A non-commissioned officer told us that 
we were going to be shot, as we had stirred up the population to rise against 
the Germans. My mother, filled with terror, succeeded in finding an officer. 
That officer questioned me: "You are suspected [Sie sind vermudef] of having 
stirred up the population." I replied: "I am a professor of the University. 
I know only my students in Louvain. All are absent from the town. I 
have relations, however, with many professors of your German universities. 
I think they will be much surprised to hear how I have been treated. Well, 
do with me what you wish." The officer considered for a moment and then 
ordered me to be released. This order was not well received and, a httle 
farther on, they tried again to arrest me. At last I succeeded in exchanging 
my cassock for civilian clothes. Then, first afoot, afterward in a peasant 
cart, we reached, after three days, the Dutch town of Maestricht. 

Another of my colleagues, Professor J. Havet, of the faculty of 
medicine, who, too, was compelled to march, with his children, in 
the direction of Tirlemont, states: 

We marched for eight hours on the road to Tirlemont, together with 
20,000 fugitives. The soldiers searched us, taking all valuables, money, 
watches, jewels, etc., and arresting the priests. 

1 That bombardment was not carried out, thanks to the intervention of the burgo- 
master, one of our University professors. 

20 



It is a fact that the priests, especially, were ill treated. On 
other roads outside the town, on which the inhabitants were driven, 
arrests of priests occurred. On the Louvain-Tervueren road, the 
following crime was committed. My informants are all my col- 
leagues now staying in England. They heard the story told by 
one of our professors who was on the spot, held as a hostage, when 
the facts happened. 

When the inhabitants were driven out of the town, a number 
of them walked in the direction of Tervueren. Among them were 
many Jesuit fathers of the theological seminary maintained by the 
Jesuits at Louvain. Those Jesuit fathers, twenty of them, were 
arrested, taken as hostages, and thrown into carts filled with sacks. 
Before entering Brussels, close by the Colonial Museum of Ter- 
vueren, the Jesuits Were searched. On one of them, a young priest, 
Fr. Duperrieux, was found a small diary containing notes on the 
events of the war. On one of the sheets of that diary, Fr. Duper- 
rieux stated : 

When, in previous times, I read that the Huns of Attila destroyed entire 
cities and that the Arabs burned the library of Alexandria, I smiled. Now 
I don't smile any more, as I have seen the Germans setting fire to the Uni- 
versity Library and the church of Louvain. 

When the Germans read those words, they immediately took 
Fr. Duperrieux out of the cart and told him he was to be shot for 
propagating sedition against the German army. The other Jesuit 
fathers were made to form a semicircle to witness the slaughter of 
their colleague. 

A white cross in chalk was marked on his cassock over his heart. 
The soldiers aimed at him, fired, and the priest fell dead. Among 
those who witnessed the execution was Monsignor Willemsen, 
former president of the American College at Louvain, who had just 
come from Rome and had been staying in Louvain for a time. The 
other Jesuit fathers were then taken to Brussels. The American 
minister in Brussels, on hearing of these priests being made host- 
ages, immediately asked the German authorities for their release. 
That was conceded, and the Jesuits were sent to the College of 
St. Michel, on the outskirts of Brussels. 

10. WHAT WAS DESTROYED AT LOUVAIN 

After the inhabitants had been driven out of the town, on Thurs- 
day, August 28, the soldiers continued sacking, looting, and burning 

21 



the houses until September 2. The American public has been told 
that only one-seventh of Louvain was destroyed. I have in my 
possession the official list of the burned houses, with the indication of 
the streets and the number of the houses. I know Louvain, I think, 
and Cardinal Mercier, who was professor of philosophy at our Uni- 
versity for many years, knows the town, too, I agree with him in 
his statement in his famous pastoral letter: 

At Louvain the third part of the buildings are down: 1,074 dwellings 
have disappeared; on the town land and in the suburbs 1,823 houses have 
been burned. 

It has been said, too, that the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall), 
a gem of architecture, was saved from burning by the German 
officers, who were shot in the back by civilians while doing that 
heroic work. The Town Hall had not to be saved, as it was not at 
all threatened by fire. The Town Hall was not set on fire for one 
simple reason: the German commander had quite comfortably 
established his headquarters in the Town Hall itself. So the Ger- 
man officers never got the opportunity to save the Hotel de Ville 
while being shot in the back by civilians. 

It has been stated, too, by correspondents of Chicago newspapers, 
that the choir stalls, the paintings, and the silver ornaments of St. 
Peter's Church were removed by German officers and intrusted to the 
present burgomaster of Louvain, who in turn deposited them in the 
Hotel de Ville across the way. The choir stalls of St. Peter were not 
removed. They could not be removed : they are too heavy. And a 
picture taken after the destruction shows that they are still on the 
spot. As for the paintings, the present burgomaster of Louvain, who 
is a professor of our University, went straight to the choir, after the 
burning of the church, to see whether the two Van der Weydens 
and the Thierry Bouts had been burned. He discovered them well 
packed up and ready to be conveyed to the station, straight to 
Germany. 

It has been said that the great buildings of the University of 
Louvain are not destroyed and that only the Library was damaged 
or destroyed. That is partly true. The buildings of the Uni- 
versity are scattered all over the town and nearly all escaped 
destruction. Until a few days ago I thought that only one build- 
ing was destroyed, the central building containing the Library, 

22 



but I recently received information that the Consular and Com- 
mercial School of the University has been destroyed, in the Rue 
du Canal. 

The central building of the University was the old Gothic Cloth 
Hall of Louvain, dating from 1317. That building included the 
examination hall, the rooms of the staff, the archives of the Uni- 
versity, with a contemporary picture of Pope Adrian VI, a fine 
piece of work, and our magnificent Library with its 920 manuscripts 
—among them many of the twelfth century and a holograph of the 
famous Thomas h, Kempis— its more than 200,000 books,i its 380 
incunabulas, its collection of seals, its numismatic collection, its 
museum of art, including the contemporary portraits of such men 
as Juste Lipse, Erycius Puteanus, etc. It contained, too, the 
libraries of many of our scientific students' clubs, which our poor 
students had bought, year by year, with their own money. Not 
one book, not one leaflet, not one manuscript was saved during the 

fire,2 as, according to a statement of Professor B , who went 

four times to the spot, nobody was allowed to approach the burning 
Library. Our librarian, Professor P. Delannoy, went, some days 
after the destruction, to the spot and found nothing but heaps of 
ashes. Only four walls and some columns are left. The Consular 
and Commercial School of the University contained the lecture- 
rooms of that department, valuable scientific collections, a museum 
of geography, etc. 

Besides the 1,074 houses and the two University buildings 
mentioned, there were also destroyed the Academy of Fine Arts (the 
Old Collegium Drieux, of the University, sixteenth century), the 
"Caserne des Dames Blanches" (military barracks), the municipal 
opera house, the old Collegium Leodiense, of the University (seven- 
teenth century), the Court of Justice (the old Collegium Yvonis, of 
the University [sixteenth century]), the "Table Ronde" (a private 
club of large size), and the coUegial church of St. Peter was badly 
damaged, "to an extent which will never permit of its recovering its 
former splendor." 

> The German Minerva, Jahrbuch fUr die gelehrle Welt, gives the nixmber of 230,000 
books. 

« Some of our professors received information that the most important boolcs and 
manuscripts were talien away by the Germans, as a gift for the German libraries, before 
they set fire to the Library. I myself don't know anything about that, as I was not on 
the spot. 

23 



That is the history of the destruction of Louvain in Belgium. 
I don't know how many civilians were killed. I heard of 1,600, 
but I have no exact information. The only thing I know is that 
up to the 8th of September, 42 dead bodies were found in the ruins 
of the houses, that, at the end of January, 29 dead bodies were found 
in the park in front of the station, where they had been hurriedly 
buried, and that two of our professors, M. Ponthi^re, professor of 
engineering, and M. Lenertz, professor of the technical schools, were 
killed. I don't know how many men were shot between the 25th 
and the 28th of August. 

The destruction of Termonde, Dinant, Andenne, Tamines, 
Roulers was carried out in the same manner as at Louvain, accord- 
ing to the documents published by the Belgian commission of inquiry. 
For Tamines, I have the list of the 348 civilian victims (surname 

and Christian name), which, according to my friend, Mr. L , 

one of the men who could escape, were mowed down by a machine- 
gun and then stabbed by bayonets. Among them were 21 young 
men between fifteen and nineteen years of age and 11 women. A 
man who knows much about the massacre of Tamines is the German 
Baron Lievin von Loe, who has his residence at Bonn, who has 
interests in the coal mine of Tamines, and who went to the spot. As 
to the other towns I have no personal evidence. I think that, in 
the future, no right-minded American will venture again to state 
that the "atrocities" in Belgium are "a myth" or "vanish on 
inquiry." In such a case, every man will have the right to cry: 

"Remember Louvain!" 



24 



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